While the likes of BlackBerry, Samsung, Dell, and HTC are all preparing to launch (or recently did launch) their first entrant into the Great Tablet Race, the rumor mill has been churning with possible information on Apple's second generation iPad. The latest bit of speculation comes from Henry King and Kevin Lu of Goldman Sachs, who believe that the iPad 2 will be thinner and sport both a camera and a mini USB connection. When it comes to the much-rumored 7-inch iPad, King and Lu believe that the device "has not yet been finalized" and that it's “unlikely to be launched ahead of the new 9.7” iPad.” Finally, the two analysts have said that the iPad 2 "could be launched" early on in the second quarter of 2011.
While some of King and Lu's prediction seem like pretty obvious, like a lighter iPad with a camera to enable FaceTime, some of their guesses seem a little less likely, most notably the mini USB port. Apple has spent a good amount of their time building their 30-pin connector into all of their iPods, iPhones, and the iPad, and I'm not sure that they'll just drop that and throw a mini USB port into the iPad 2. Still, Apple is notoriously hard to predict, so you never know.
Via IntoMobile, AppleInsider